Changes to Winsted comment policy violate town charter

WINSTED >> Although the town made an effort to comply with the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut's request to make the public comment policy constitutional, in the process it managed to violate the town's charter.

The town was contacted by the ACLU on July 25 and informed that its recently-revised public comment policy violated the First Amendment. Winchester was given until Aug. 7 to respond to the accusations or change the policy.

After receiving the newly-revised edition of the policy that was filed with the Town Clerk's Office on Friday, Staff Attorney David McGuire said he was pleased to see that the town was trying to move in the right direction.

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The town charter policy that addresses this matter reads: "Regular meetings shall be held twice in each month on dates to be fixed by ordinance, at which meetings any elector, property owner, or resident of said Town may appear and be heard as to any business of said Town."

McGuire says it seems to have been a mistake to have changed the policy without consulting the charter.

"I still think it's promising that they removed the origin issue," McGuire said. "They're trying to get it right. But they have to abide by their own governing document."

McGuire says it was clear that the town reacted in a timely fashion in order to be in line with the constitution. He says the language, however, "clearly" violates the charter.

"These are limited public forums and the town gets to set the parameters for those forums," McGuire said. "At some point the town saw it fit to make the meetings broad and open. Free speech is free speech"

He notes that earlier this year the agendas allotted the public two sections for comment. One was placed towards the beginning of the meeting where citizens could address anything they liked, the other section was towards the end of the meeting that allowed citizens to make comments on agenda items.

McGuire says it mays have been a better option to revert to that policy.

"They consolidated those into one and that's not a problem as long as they're in compliance," he said, "and it's an easy solution to come into compliance. We still hope that the town will reach out to us to resolve this issue."

McGuire says he's tried to reach out to town attorney Kevin Nelligan who has not responded to his calls. Nelligan and Mayor Maryann Welcome were also contacted by Register Citizen staff on Friday neither returned a call for comment.

Selectmen George Closson says after he spoke to attorney Nelligan, he thinks replacing the phrasing with the exact wording of the charter will fix the issue.

"There are so many issues that are so much more important," Closson said. "We can't spend time splitting hairs talking about wording."

He says the issue will be corrected and announced at Monday's Board of Selectmen meeting.

Closson also notes it was never the board's intention to "stifle" anyone's free speech and that it was more of a matter of trying to keep the meeting "civil." He says the revised wording was drafted by Nelligan, and the confusion was a matter of "misinterpretation."

He contacted McGuire Friday evening. In a voicemail message, Closson assured him that the wording would mirror the charter.

McGuire says the ACLU is glad to see Winsted was receptive to the letter and has acted in a timely fashion.

"We're hopeful that this resolved the free speech issue in Winsted," he said.